The COVID-19 global pandemic has shell shocked what was already a fragile global economy and forced businesses to tighten their belts, adapt, and innovate in order to survive.
Consumers had no choice but to change their behaviors at the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Many businesses were able to shift to a work from home set-up, but some had to close indefinitely. Many weren’t so lucky. Those lucky enough to switch to e-commerce and delivery, were able to survive the initial lockdown, particularly in Thailand, and open up again as conditions improved. This is in part due to the fact that Thailand is a country that was already big on delivery services and had a strong infrastructure in place to support this shift. With businesses like Grab, LINE, Kerry, and Foodpanda, consumers were able to purchase goods and services easily. They didn’t have to worry about leaving the comfort and safety of their homes. This lent itself to the digital marketing success of many businesses.
With new challenges popping up for every type of business, we thought we’d take a look at some case studies.
5 Successful Digital Marketing Cases Studies
One Ounce for Onion
Today, digital marketing and business strategy go hand in hand. One Ounce for Onion is a great example of a small business that successfully navigated the lockdown measures of 2020. Their marketing success is due to their quick thinking in preparing menu options for those who were locked at home. They were able to deliver food and bottled coffee drinks at affordable prices. This allowed them to continue to operate through and after the lockdown. They did this simply by using LINE for Business. Their coffee basically got me through my work from home months.
Just Cuts
Just Cuts is a chain of hair salons in New Zealand that had to shut their doors during the lockdown. Their story is not just one of success, but of giving back to their community. They partnered with Dress for Success, a charity that empowers women. They do this by providing women with professional clothing and development tools to help them gain employment. Together they started a national discounted haircut program. With the vouchers provided by Dress for Success, dozens of women who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic have been able to afford haircuts post lockdown as they try to access new job opportunities.
LINE Thailand
LINE is already the most popular chat and messenger application in Thailand, and it only gained users and popularity during the nationwide lockdown. So, why is this included in our case studies of success stories? Here’s why. Back in April, at the height of the pandemic in Thailand, they held a “LINE FOR BUSINESS” online live event. The topic was “Thailand Now and Next After Covid-19”. The aim was to prepare Thai businesses for the inevitable change in consumer behavior post pandemic. More than 300,000 people viewed this event.
As previously mentioned, Thailand has long been relying on e-commerce and delivery services, but with lockdown and social distancing rules, the use of LINE applications increased by 1 million users up to 45 million. They put together initiatives to support their users in each of the countries where they are popular. In Thailand, some of the initiatives as listed on the LINE website were:
- Contributing to the local community and partners.
- “Work on LINE” promotion: LINE tips and tricks for those working at home.
- Donation stickers.
- LINE TV: Live daily broadcasts for free, allowing users access to the government’s daily updates on COVID-19 and other important announcements.
- Educational communications campaign in conjunction with Thai Media Fund and the Ministry of Public Health to educate the public on COVID-19.
- COVID-19 Info Hub: A newly launched mini-app that provides a daily health assessment.
- LINE TODAY: A central news hub for updates and other information regarding COVID-19.
Helping and supporting local people and businesses helped them to grow even more in popularity, and of course increased their revenue.
Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt
Success can be measured in many ways and that makes this a story of marketing success. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt announced the release of virtual tours of five of their historic sites. They tours take you through the tombs of the pharaohs. And, they allow you to experience them through 3-D imagery as you “walk” through them. The whole ‘this is free’ for everyone and serves the purpose of promoting Egyptian tourism as well as increasing awareness of their civilization. The whole campaign is aimed at helping people stay at home, stay safe, learn something, and enjoy themselves.
Zoom
Millions of people around the world were forced to stay at home, work from home, or learn from home. Many of them turned to Zoom, probably the best example of digital marketing success. It’s one of the many video conferencing services available, but it rose to prominence thanks to resonating with the new social distancing culture and the user friendliness of the app. It grew over from 10 million daily users in December of 2019 to 200 million in March of 2020.
The reason for this is mainly because of their functionality. The majority of people who use Zoom, including myself, say that the user experience design is simple and easy to master. Even my 67-year old dad learned to use it to give seminars. On top of that, the video quality is higher than most other video conferencing services while allowing up to 100 participants in one meeting itself (up to 1,000 with an add on).
This could be part of what caused the explosion in their popularity. A true marketing success is when people get to know about you. If one person used Zoom, they could invite others to join their meetings, activities, classes, hanging out sessions, workouts, and more. And, as more and more people were invited to join the Zoom meetings, they would invite more to join it. As the pandemic continued, people found the convenience and simplicity of the program and so it scaled better than any other company. Now it’s still the main go to platform for online education as the pandemic continues.
Wrapping Up: Why Focus on Digital Marketing Success?
People are worried, businesses are concerned, but it’s not all negative. During this time of distress there are many things that you can do to help your brand or business achieve marketing success. You have many opportunities to build a reputation and develop bonds with potential consumers. You’ll find our path to digital marketing success.
The key takeaway from each of these case studies is to show that you understand the difficulties that people are going through and offer them something that will give them hope or get them through it. It will open up business opportunities for you and your business as we enter the post-Covid new normal world.
Always remember that you’re not alone. We’re all in this together and if you need to ask for advice or assistance, please feel free to contact us and our team of Enablers.